Page 242 - Dungeon Master's Guide

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RESOLUTION AND CONSEQUENCES EXPLORATION
You determine the consequences of attack rolls, ability This section provides guidance for running exploration,
checks, and saving throws. In most cases, doing so is especially travel, tracking, and visibility.
straightforward. When an attack hits, it deals damage.
When a creature fails a saving throw, the creature USING A MAP
suffers a harmful effect. When an ability check equals or
Whatever environment the adventurers are exploring,
exceeds the DC, the check succeeds.
you can use a map to follow their progress as you relate
As a DM, you have a variety of flourishes and
the details of their travels. In a dungeon, tracking
approaches you can take when adjudicating success and
movement on a map lets you describe the branching
failure to make things a little less black-and-white.
passages, doors, chambers, and other features the
adventurers encounter as they go, and gives the players
SuccEss AT A CosT
the opportunity to choose their own path. Similarly, a
Failure can be tough, but the agony is compounded
wilderness map can show roads, rivers, terrain, and
when a character fails by the barest margin. When a
other features that might guide the characters on their
character fails a roll by only 1 or 2, you can allow the
travels- or lead them astray.
character to succeed at the cost of a complication or
The Map Travel Pace table helps you track travel on
hindrance. Such complications can run along any of the
maps of different scales. The table shows how much
following lines:
distance on a map the adventurers can cover on foot
A character manages to get her sword past a in minutes, hours, or days. The table uses the travel
hobgoblin's defenses and turn a near miss into a hit, paces- slow, normal, and fast-described in the Player's
but the hobgoblin twists its shield and disarms her. Handbook. Characters moving at a normal pace can
A character narrowly escapes the full brunt of a walk about 24 miles in a day.
fireball but ends up prone.
A character fails to intimidate a kobold prisoner, but MAP TRAVEL PACE
the kobold reveals its secrets anyway while shrieking Map Scale Slow Pace Normal Pace Fast Pace
at the top of its lungs, alerting other nearby monsters. Dungeon 20 sq.fmin. 30 sq.fmin. 40 sq.fmin.
• A character manages to finish an arduous climb to the
(1 sq.= 10ft.)
top of a cliff despite slipping, only to realize that the
City 2 sq.fmin. 3 sq.fmin. 4 sq.fmin.
rope on which his companions dangle below him is
(1 sq.= 100ft.)
close to breaking.
Province 2 hexesjhr., 3 hexesfhr., 4 hexesjhr.,
When you introduce costs such as these, try to make (1 hex= 1 mi.) 18 hexesfday 24 hexesfday 30 hexesjday
them obstacles and setbacks that change the nature
Kingdom 1 hexf3 hr., 1 hexf2 hr., 1 hexjll/2 hr.,
of the adventuring situation. In exchange for success,
(1 hex= 6 mi.) 3 hexesjday 4 hexesfday 5 hexesjday
players must consider new ways of facing the challenge.
You can also use this technique when a character
SPECIAL TRAVEL PACE
succeeds on a roll by hitting the DC exactly,
complicating marginal success in interesting ways. The rules ori travel pace in the Player's Handbook
assume that a group of travelers adopts a pace that, over
DEGREES OF FAILURE time, is unaffected by the individual members' walking
Sometimes a failed ability check has different speeds. The difference between walking speeds can
consequences depending on the degree of failure. For be significant during combat, but during an overland
example, a character who fails to disarm a trapped chest journey, the difference vanishes as travelers pause to
might accidentally spring the trap if the check fails by catch their breath, the faster ones wait for the slower
5 or more, whereas a lesser failure means that the trap ones, and one traveler's quickness is matched by
wasn't triggered during the botched disarm attempt. another traveler's endurance.
Consider adding similar distinctions to other checks. A character bestride a phantom steed, soaring
Perhaps a failed Charisma (Persuasion) check means a through the air on a carpet of flying, or riding a sailboar
queen won't help, whereas a failure of 5 or more means or a steam-powered gnomish contraption doesn't travel
she throws you ir the dungeon for your impudence. at a normal rate, since the magic, engine, or wind
doesn't tire the way a creature does and the air doesn't
CRITICAL SUCCESS OR FAILURE
contain the types of obstructions found on land. When a
Rolling a 20 or a 1 on an ability check or a saving throw
creature is traveling with a flying speed or with a speed
doesn't normally have any special effect. However,
granted by magic, an engine, or a natural force (such as
you can choose to take such an exceptional roll into
wind or a water current), translate that speed into travel
account when adjudicating the outcome. It's up to you
rates using the following rules:
to determine how this manifests in the game. An easy
approach is to increase the impact of the success or In 1 minute, you can move a number of feet equal to
failure. For example, rolling a 1 on a failed attempt your speed times 10.
to pick a lock might break the thieves' tools being In 1 hour, you can move a number of miles equal to
used, and rolling a 20 on a successful Intelligence your speed divided by 10.
(Investigation) check might reveal an extra clue.
CHAPTER 8 I RUNNING THE GAME